APPROXIMATELY ONE IN 25 PATIENTS WILL ACQUIRE AN INFECTION DURING A
HOSPITAL STAY, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The
CDC’s most recent data, which was taken from a large selection of acute-care hospitals in the
United States in 2011, shows an estimated 722,000 hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) for that
year, with about 75,000 cases ending in death.
According to Infectious Diseases Society of America spokesperson John Lynch, MD, MPH, an
associate professor of medicine in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the University
of Washington, unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, as well as the very nature of a hospital, are
two chief culprits. “Bacteria are like all living things: They adapt,” he says. “We have antibiotics,
sure, but when bacteria adapt to the point that they are no longer susceptible to existing antibiotic
therapies, things get complicated.” He explains that constant exposure to antibiotics helps once-manageable bacteria evolve into “superbugs,” such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus (MRSA). Because it’s a relatively small space filled with sick people, a hospital “is a
perfect environment for communicable infection,” adds Lynch, stressing that it is crucial to
enforce “stringent active, as well as passive, infection control.” Both medicine and materials
play a role in the fight against HAIs, he says, noting a resurgence of interest in naturally antimicrobial materials, such as zinc and copper, in modern medicine. (For more on this, see the
Summer 2015 issue of ICON, page 16.)
Now, a new antimicrobial paint has become one such tool in passive infection control.
Paint Shield from The Sherwin-Williams Company contains a disinfectant quaternary ammonium compound that kills 99.9 percent of five pathogens commonly associated with HAIs within
two hours of exposure on a painted surface. The first product of its kind to be registered by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Paint Shield passed rigorous EPA test protocols conducted by third-party, EPA-inspected GLP [Good Laboratory Practices] labs,” says
Steve Revnew, vice president of product innovation at Sherwin-Williams. Paint Shield remains
2.
HAVING IT ALL: BEAUTY AND
SURPRISING FUNCTIONALITY
1. Among the five pathogens frequently
associated with hospital-acquired
infections are the common
Staphylococcus aureus; Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA), which is pictured; E. coli;
Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus
faecalis; and Enterobacter aerogenes.
2. Locker rooms in a variety of settings
can spread infection, so antimicrobial
paint is a good choice.
Healthier Interiors
1.
I
M
A
G
E
1
:
T
A
T
I
A
N
A
S
H
E
P
E
L
E
V
A
,
S
H
U
T
T
E
R
S
T
O
C
K
/
I
M
A
G
E
2
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
O
F
T
H
E
S
H
E
R
W
I
N
-
W
I
L
L
I
A
M
S
C
O
M
P
A
N
Y
